"Korean Server, Korean Dubbing" - Dota 2 is comingNexon and Valve working together to start local service in Korea

There have been whispers of a Korea-centric Dota 2 service coming up.

Currently, Valve's Dota 2 already has servers in North America, South East Asia, Oceania, Europe, Russia and China. Korea is said to be the next country to have servers set up for the game.

This was recently discovered in the latest patch, where patch files had an extra line called "dota_region Korea" added after the latest Australian server addition, and the news has been spreading on Twitter.

ThisIsGame did a check and true enough, Korea is next on the list to have Dota 2 servers. The company in charge of setting up the servers will be game publishing company Nexon. Dota 2 runs on Valve's proprietary Steam client, thus Nexon will not be in charge of managing and testing the game.

Over a phone interview, Nexon revealed that Dota 2 will have its servers set up as "beta" status, in accordance to the game's current publishing status. Nexon will be in charge of setting up the servers, but could not give the exact time frame in which they will be set up.

- Nexon preparing complete Korean dubs

There has been multiple signs of Dota 2 coming to Korea. Dota 2 footage appeared on GomTV's Gangnam Studio opening video that featured on the 19th, and the official Dota 2 Korean dub Twitter account has also been set up to announce the latest progress.

A check by ThisIsGame revealed that the Twitter account is currently being managed by Nexon's Dota 2 team, and the same team are also in charge of the dubs. Nexon is working with Valve for testing the Korean language support.

A Nexon spokesman said that they are currently in works with the Korean language support, and despite having partial support for the language, they have been working "since March to provide an accurate, complete translation as well as to test the servers in Korea."

Nexon, who revealed their intention in February 2012 to launch Dota 2 in the later half of 2013 has yet to announce a concrete test schedule.

One gaming industry watcher said that "the second half target was a very loose deadline", and that if "the servers are set up with a local company's help, it is highly likely that the game will launch in the first half of 2013." He added that "Aeon of Strife-style games are very popular in Korea right now, and that (Valve and Nexon) are waiting for the right timing to launch Dota 2 to ride on that momentum".

My Korean isn't great, and if someone could produce a more detailed translation, that'd be great. From what I can understand, there will be a full localized dub for the South Korean Dota 2 launch (maintained by Valve, handled by Nexon), which is scheduled to happen in the second half of 2013 according to their launch schedule.

With this information and the hints at Dota 2 in GOM's latest trailer, it looks like there might be some serious behind-the-scenes machinery at work for Dota 2 in South Korea, one of the few video game markets that the game has yet to penetrate.

Man, it's going to be HARD to break the LoL market in South Korea. I mean, how can they do it? SC2 (I think) has really failed to grip the nation like BW did, what can Valve do that Blizzard didn't do? What can they do to win over the Koreans from LoL?

On March 08 2013 02:20 Comeh wrote:Man, it's going to be HARD to break the LoL market in South Korea. I mean, how can they do it? SC2 (I think) has really failed to grip the nation like BW did, what can Valve do that Blizzard didn't do? What can they do to win over the Koreans from LoL?

What can Nexon do? Valve is not involved in the distribution. But besides that basically the same thing that lol did. Run commercials get the game into the pc-bangs and run tournaments.

On March 08 2013 02:20 Comeh wrote:Man, it's going to be HARD to break the LoL market in South Korea. I mean, how can they do it? SC2 (I think) has really failed to grip the nation like BW did, what can Valve do that Blizzard didn't do? What can they do to win over the Koreans from LoL?

now just need to get some shitstorm campaign going against LoL and riot....like we could blame riot for using poison in babyfood or something....otherwise i dont see dota 2 become more than another starcraft 2 who is inside of korea not that noteworthy(unlike LoL) ))))but i hope the true korean elitism will shine through and people will switch to the better game

On March 08 2013 02:20 Comeh wrote:Man, it's going to be HARD to break the LoL market in South Korea. I mean, how can they do it? SC2 (I think) has really failed to grip the nation like BW did, what can Valve do that Blizzard didn't do? What can they do to win over the Koreans from LoL?

"Korean Server, Korean Dubbing" - Dota 2 is comingNexon and Valve working together to start local service in Korea

There have been whispers of a Korea-centric Dota 2 service coming up.

Currently, Valve's Dota 2 already has servers in North America, South East Asia, Oceania, Europe, Russia and China. Korea is said to be the next country to have servers set up for the game.

This was recently discovered in the latest patch, where patch files had an extra line called "dota_region Korea" added after the latest Australian server addition, and the news has been spreading on Twitter.

ThisIsGame did a check and true enough, Korea is next on the list to have Dota 2 servers. The company in charge of setting up the servers will be game publishing company Nexon. Dota 2 runs on Valve's proprietary Steam client, thus Nexon will not be in charge of managing and testing the game.

Over a phone interview, Nexon revealed that Dota 2 will have its servers set up as "beta" status, in accordance to the game's current publishing status. Nexon will be in charge of setting up the servers, but could not give the exact time frame in which they will be set up.

- Nexon preparing complete Korean dubs

There has been multiple signs of Dota 2 coming to Korea. Dota 2 footage appeared on GomTV's Gangnam Studio opening video that featured on the 19th, and the official Dota 2 Korean dub Twitter account has also been set up to announce the latest progress.

A check by ThisIsGame revealed that the Twitter account is currently being managed by Nexon's Dota 2 team, and the same team are also in charge of the dubs. Nexon is working with Valve for testing the Korean language support.

A Nexon spokesman said that they are currently in works with the Korean language support, and despite having partial support for the language, they have been working "since March to provide an accurate, complete translation as well as to test the servers in Korea."

Nexon, who revealed their intention in February 2012 to launch Dota 2 in the later half of 2013 has yet to announce a concrete test schedule.

One gaming industry watcher said that "the second half target was a very loose deadline", and that if "the servers are set up with a local company's help, it is highly likely that the game will launch in the first half of 2013." He added that "Aeon of Strife-style games are very popular in Korea right now, and that (Valve and Nexon) are waiting for the right timing to launch Dota 2 to ride on that momentum".

Korea is at the top level together with China up to a certain degree, some of the top EU teams can and will beat Asian teams though(Gambit Gaming/Ex M5, EG, Fnatic etc). China has WE,iG and arguably Azubu Assasinz(Former TPA) while Korea has a whole plethora of teams ranging from 2 CJ entus teams to SKT to two KT teams to LG-IM.

On March 08 2013 02:34 Noocta wrote:Well, that's gonna be a hard market to pierce for Valve.Let's see what they can do. I'm sure with proper marketing they can make Korean try the game.

Nexon. It's Nexon that's is marketing the game in Korea.

On March 08 2013 02:35 Kipsate wrote:Korea is at the top level together with China up to a certain degree, some of the top EU teams can and will beat Asian teams though(Gambit Gaming/Ex M5, EG, Fnatic etc). China has WE,iG and arguably Azubu Assasinz(Former TPA) while Korea has a whole plethora of teams ranging from 2 CJ entus teams to SKT to two KT teams to LG-IM.

On March 08 2013 02:35 Kipsate wrote:Korea is at the top level together with China up to a certain degree, some of the top EU teams can and will beat Asian teams though(Gambit Gaming/Ex M5, EG, Fnatic etc). China has WE,iG and arguably Azubu Assasinz(Former TPA) while Korea has a whole plethora of teams ranging from 2 CJ entus teams to SKT to two KT teams to LG-IM.

Who are you replying to?

On March 08 2013 02:31 TunaBarrett wrote:Not sure if excited. I mean while i did follow dota 1 pretty heavily i guess i might have missed any korean teams there...but i doubt it?

Although i recall korea having a pretty good lol community for what its worth, anyone know if they are at the top level?

Honestly i don't care if Dota 2 will ever have success in Korea. Don't get me wrong, that would be amazing and good for the scene, but i'm more interested how Nexon is planning to create that scene. Everyone knows that LoL is pretty dominating there, so i'm sure it won't be easy.

I hope they do it right. Having exhibition matches/tournaments to showcase the game with best pro-teams, having someone to promote their game, just like Nada does for World of Tanks or did for LoL before that.

I'm very pessimistic about this, first of all it seems like GOM is picking up Dota 2 however there are literally no korean teams whatsoever, then you have League of Legends which is so big in Korea its staggering and then you have the fact that the game still isn't technically free to play in the sense that anyone can just pick it up.

I think Korea is a market they just aren't going to get sadly.

Korea is at the top level together with China up to a certain degree, some of the top EU teams can and will beat Asian teams though(Gambit Gaming/Ex M5, EG, Fnatic etc). China has WE,iG and arguably Azubu Assasinz(Former TPA) while Korea has a whole plethora of teams ranging from 2 CJ entus teams to SKT to two KT teams to LG-IM.

Korean teams are changing the meta game to an extreme extent, they are the first community to think hey, what if we just push and it's starting to cause the pro community to call for towers to do MORE damage, they are actually shaking the game up in a way people never bothered to try. Korea is a monster in LoL and they have only just been introduced.